促进肿瘤细胞干性的微环境因素

Elements of promoting cancer cells stemness in tumor microenvironment

肿瘤组织中存在数量稀少但具有干细胞特征的肿瘤细胞亚群,称之为肿瘤干细胞样细胞。其既能自我更新,又能通过无限增殖来重构具有侵袭性等恶性生物学行为的肿瘤。肿瘤干细胞样细胞赖以生存的微环境是由多种非细胞和细胞因素共同构成。在这些以多个水平、多样形式存在的因素之间,细胞因子网络和信号转导通路起到了信息传递作用。这些因素参与维持和促进肿瘤细胞的干性,以及参与肿瘤的复发、转移及治疗抵抗。为了深入了解肿瘤微环境中的这些因素,本文结合该领域的研究进展对其进行综述。

Cancer stem-like cells are defined as a small population of tumor cells that are able to self-renew and unlimitedly generate the neoplasm with the invasive and other malignant biological behavior.There are various components in the microenvironment in which cancer stem-like cells are located.The microenvironment consists of various cellular and non-cellular factors in a variety of levels and forms.Especially,it is both cytokine network and various signaling pathways that play an important role in signal transduction among these elements.Accumulating evidence suggests these factors promote cancer cells stemness and involve in cancer recurrence,metastasis and resistance.In order to further comprehend these factors in tumor microenvironment,we review recent researches in this field.